


Day 6: Presents

by BluePlanetTrash



Series: Merry Langstmas (12 Days of Christmas) [6]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Emotional Hurt, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Merry Langstmas
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-16
Updated: 2018-01-16
Packaged: 2019-03-05 19:11:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,663
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13394367
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BluePlanetTrash/pseuds/BluePlanetTrash
Summary: The paladins wanted to exchange presents for Christmas and they were excited to do so. When they went to the Space Mall they quickly picked something for everyone. It wasn't until they got back that they realize they all forgot to get something for one person. The same person.





	1. Chapter 1

When Allura announced that they would be going to the space mall, everyone was understandably excited. They calculated that it would have been December on Earth even if they couldn’t narrow down the exact date. They could celebrate Christmas whenever they wanted to though. They told Coran and Allura about the holiday and found out that they had a holiday much like it except it was on the opposite time of the year when it would have been around June on Earth; because of it, they opted to celebrate their holiday then and not Christmas with them. Although they were a bit disappointed, it was understandable that they would want to celebrate an Altean holiday.

As they searched through the stores it was easy to pick things out for each of the paladins, things on the shelf just reminded them of each other. By the time they got back to the Castle, they thought that they would be able to make each other’s Christmases with no problems.

However, there was an identical factor between four of the paladins. They all forgot to buy for one of them.

They agreed that they would meet in the lounge after they were finished getting their gifts ready for each other. They couldn’t wait an extra few days to do a Christmas morning and instead wanted to get it done and celebrate as quickly as possible. They agreed and split off to their own rooms.

As they wrapped their gifts, the realization came over them. They only had three gifts each to give to their teammates. They panicked slightly before realizing that the gift they forgot was for Lance. He wouldn’t really mind, as long as he got something for somebody else and they said that they would get something for him later. He only really cared about the money that was spent on it anyway.

It didn’t take them long before they were in the lounge with their piles waiting to start.

“Who wants to go first?” Shiro asked as he sat down. Pidge’s hand immediately shot up earning a chuckled from the rest of them. They agreed and handed over her gifts. She ripped them open quickly, not surprised at the various computer junk that she expected from the team. She stopped when Lance cleared his throat and she looked over at him. He was holding out his present for her to take.

Lance handed her over two gifts though. She ripped open the smaller box first, not sure what Lance could have gotten her. She wasn’t expecting much out of him though. Not until she unwrapped a brand new Nintendo 3DS. Her head whipped up to look at Lance in surprise.

“I found it in the Earth shop, thought you might want something you can carry around with you,” he said with a smile, thoroughly enjoying the excited look on her face. She quickly ripped into the other package, revealing a stack of games including Pokémon, Legend of Zelda, Kirby, and others.

“Lance this is awesome, thanks!” She cheered hopping up and wrapping him in a hug. He laughed and squeezed her back before she plopped herself on the floor and started up the console. They figured that she was going to see how well it worked, when actually she was trying to distract herself from the painful squeezing in her stomach. Guilt came over her like a wave when she remembered that she hadn’t picked anything out for Lance.

“Do you really like it?” Lance asked with a bashful smile directed towards her. She frantically nodded her head. He only smiled and turned his attention back to the group who was deciding who would get their gifts next. Finally, Keith huffed and just pointed to Hunk instead of arguing over it anymore. Before Hunk could try to volunteer someone else, they reached over and plopped their gifts in his lap.

“Oh. Well, okay then,” he relented before he started ripping into the packages. He smiled and thanked the paladins as he unwrapped the gifts. From Shiro, he got lion shaped oven mitts, a new apron from Keith, and a tall chief’s hat from Pidge. When he picked up the small round box from Lance, he immediately felt calm for some reason. He glanced up at Lance and saw that he was excitably wringing his hands together and staring at the box in his hands.

Before he could even open the box, he could feel the guilt rising up in his stomach. Lance was his best friend, and he had forgotten to buy for him, at Christmas no less. He popped the top off and gasped when he saw the glowing stone inside. He carefully lifted it up by the chain for the crystal to dangle in front of his eyes.

“Is-is this from a Balmara?” He asked in awe looking over at Lance who had a big smile on his face. He nodded his head excitably and clapped his hands.

“Where did you find this in the space mall?”

“Oh, I didn’t,” he admitted rubbing his neck as a blush formed on his cheeks.

“I actually got in contact with Shay a little while ago and asked if she could send a piece of a crystal through the Blade so I could make a necklace for you out of it,” he revealed. They gaped at the process that Lance went through, just to give his friend a stone on Christmas.

“Whoa, thanks, Lance,” Hunk said in disbelief looping it around his neck.

“That’s not all though, Shay said that if you hold it near your heart the two of you will be able to communicate through the Balmara,” Lance said even more excited as he gestured madly at the pendant. Hunk gaped and clutched the crystal in his fist before holding it tightly to his chest and closing his eyes. His eyes snapped open when he felt a shot of warmth travel through his body.

“Oh my God Lance, thank you so much,” he whispered. Tears were beginning to well up in his eyes. A mix of happiness at beginning able to feel Shay again and the horrible shame that he knew Lance was going to be disappointed when his friend didn’t get anything for him. Although he knew that Lance wasn’t someone that would get angry over something like that, he knew that it would still hurt the blue paladin’s feelings.

They started arguing again when they were trying to decide who they wanted to decide who went next.

“Age before beauty Shiro,” Lance finally said.

“Yeah Shiro,” Keith smirked leaning back on the couch. Shiro rolled his eyes before accepting the gifts that were sent his way. He chuckled at the eyeliner and #1 dad mug from Keith and Pidge and thanked Hunk sincerely for the new boots.

“I’m really sorry I don’t know if I’m crossing a line with this one Shiro,” Lance said as he sheepishly handed over the package to the leader. He quirked his brow at the admission and heaved it onto his lap, it was a lot heavier than he initially thought. He looked up from the wrapped package to look at Lance in confusion. He was looking down at his lap instead and clenching his hands in his pant legs. He nervously tore the paper away from the box and lifted up the lid.

“What the- what the hell is this?” He whispered. The rest of the paladins peered into the box before looking up at Lance with wide eyes.

“Where did you find this?” Shiro asked, tracing his fingers over the white metal fingers of the prosthetic arm.

“Well, actually I made it myself,” he admitted looking up into Shiro’s eyes. He flinched slightly when Shiro tore his fingers away from it as if he had been burned.

“You made this?” Keith asked in awe, still looking flabbergasted down at it.

“Um, yes? I was learning about being a prosthetist instead of a cargo pilot before I was moved to fighter class, I learned all about these kinds of things, and I knew that there were only bad memories attached to your galra one so I wanted to make you this new one,” he told them. They were all shocked and Shiro started tearing up as he looked down at the new arm. The metal on it was matte black and white and shone with blue energy instead of purple.

“I hope I didn’t go too far,” he said ashamed. Shiro’s head whipped up to face him and shook his head frantically.

“No Lance, this is perfect,” he said choking up. He reached up and swiped at his eyes, trying to get rid of the water that was leaking out of them. Lance let out a loud sigh of relief and collapsed back on the couch. As tears rolled down his cheeks he could only feel the guilt well up in his chest, making more tears well up. He could see the happiness on his face, even though he hadn’t received anything and only saw how glad Shiro was for what he got from Lance.

Keith looked over to Lance for a split second before Lance opened his mouth.

“Age before beauty remember?” He said with a grin. Keith rolled his eyes but accepted his presents. He smiled though, as he opened up the presents. From Hunk he got a new pair of gloves, from Pidge a pair of sunglasses that said badass across the lenses, and a stuffed hippo from Shiro.

“I’m going to kill you for this,” he hissed at the grinning leader even as he hugged it to his chest. He took the last package and ripped it open.

“What is this?” Keith asked looking up from the tablet to look at Lance. “Did you just get me a tablet?” After all the things that he had gotten for the rest of his friends, he was kind of disappointed that Lance hadn’t gotten him something as monumental as them. Although, he really shouldn’t think like that since he hadn’t gotten the blue paladin anything either.

“Well, kind of,” he said shrugging his shoulders before getting up and sitting beside Keith instead. He took it from his hands and entered one of the folders before handing it back to him. There was now a picture of a galra facing them. It was a female from what they could tell and she had thick dark hair and bright violet eyes. He looked up at Lance in confusion, waiting for an explanation.

“I started asking Kolivan for some information and told him about you, and he gave me all the information he could on someone named Kara, we think she might be your mother,” he said. Keith’s head whipped up to look at Lance, tears already welling up in his eyes.

“What?” He choked out weakly.

“She had a mission on Earth and didn’t report back for years, when she did they informed her that her position was compromised and she came back to the Blade but she seemed devastated and she was posted at a second base further away then their communications could reach,” he said holding onto Keith trembling hands. He stared into Lance’s eyes, tears falling freely in shock as he took in his words.

“Every Blade has a tracker on them that monitors their health though and it shows that she is still alive, you could visit her if you want to,” Lance said softly. Keith turned to him in shock before collapsing onto him with a sob.

“Thank you so much, you don’t know how much this means to me,” he said clutching onto Lance’s shoulders.

“Well, if I thought about how much I would miss my mamá if she left without an explanation, I couldn’t stand to let you feel that for much longer,” he said softly ruffling Keith hair before they broke apart. Keith couldn’t stand it any longer and threw himself down on the couch beside Lance with a cry.

“I’m sorry!” he wailed clutching onto Lance’s pants. The shame was flowing out of him in waves.

“For what?” He asked threading his fingers gently through Keith’s hair.

“I didn’t get you anything, I’m so sorry,” he wailed pressing his wet eyes into Lance’s thigh. Lance sighed but didn’t let up on his petting.

“It’s okay Keith,” he said. Inwardly he was disappointed though, maybe the other’s gifts would make up for it though. It was obvious that Keith was feeling guilty because of it and he was going through an emotional breakdown right now. It wasn’t the time for him to feel greedy.

“No, it’s not,” Keith argued. “I promise I’ll get you something later, I promise that I’ll make it up to you,” he cried. Lance looked at him sadly for a second before looking at the rest of them with a smile. It dropped quickly though, as he saw that they were all averting their eyes to the floor and various points of the room. His heart quickly sunk in realization.

“Keith wasn’t the only one was he?” They looked up to glance at each other, hoping that at least one of them had a gift for the blue paladin.

“W-we just, I mean we, ah,” they tried to defend themselves. There was visible heart ache on his face though as he looked at them.

“We’re so sorry Lance,” Hunk said looking down at the floor, his hand clutched around the pendant around his neck. He looked at them in shock before pointing his gaze to the floor.

“It’s okay,” he said quietly but it was loud in the silence of the room. They went to argue but Lance held up and hand for them to stop.

“I’m just happy that you liked what I got for you,” he said before he gently stood up away from Keith, who looked up with a devastated expression. “I’m gonna go to bed guys, please don’t come see me until breakfast tomorrow, I really want to be alone,”

With that he turned and walked out of the room. It wasn’t until he got half way there did tears start falling off of his chin and he let out a tiny sob. He tried to stop, thinking that he was being greedy and he shouldn’t be this upset that he didn’t get presents from them. It wasn’t about the gifts though, it was that they forgot about him. Out of all the people on the ship, they forgot about him.

He strode into his room, not even bothering to do his nightly routine or change into his pyjamas before he fell onto his bed. He couldn’t bring himself to get up, the hurt that welled up in his chest and stomach weighed him down.

Don’t be greedy Lance. They didn’t mean to. Don’t be greedy.


	2. Chapter 2

The pillow beneath his head was soaked with tears before he dragged himself up to tug his jacket off. He threw it to the ground in front of him and sat in silence, just staring at it in thought. It didn’t make the hurt any less painful though. Why didn’t they just pick him up something in the first place? He would have been happy with anything. He sighed and dropped his face into his cupped hands.

He wasn’t trying to sound greedy, but it was a punch to the gut to know that his “friends” had forgotten about him.

His head shot up.

What if they hadn’t forgotten about him?

What if they just didn’t care enough?

He shook his head. No. It was obvious that they felt guilty, Keith especially. He fell back on his bed and stared up at the ceiling as tears started filling his eyes.

Everything was going to be okay.

Even though they had previously been sitting in silence in the lounge where Lance had left them. They were now ripping down the halls to the hanger. By then they were all crying silently. Although they weren’t talking to each other, they already knew that they were about to do. They climbed into Black’s mouth and shot out of the airlock.

“We’re so stupid,” Keith growled glaring down at the floor. They didn’t answer but at that point, they really didn’t have to.

“We’re not stupid, we did something stupid,” Hunk said from where he was standing behind Shiro’s chair. They looked over at him.

“Lance doesn’t like it when we’re mean to ourselves,” he explained not meeting any of their eyes. Somehow that made them feel even worse.

“What about when we’re mean to him?” Pidge asked.

“We kind of already saw how that worked out,” Shiro said keeping his eyes trained forward. It was silent for the rest of the trip.

They were lucky that they decided not to travel too far from the mall until the next day. Thankfully it didn’t seem like it had a closing time either, so they had plenty of time to find Lance the perfect gifts.

“I’m going to say this straight out; I don’t think Lance would care about any of the alien things here,” Keith announced as they squinted at the mall directory trying to figure out any of the alien languages.

“Earth shop then?” Pidge asked. They looked at each other and nodded before heading down the strip. Shopkeepers called out to them, remembering them from earlier. With a kind wave and a smile, they continued on, their minds focused solely on their mission. The alien’s face popped up as they walked through the door and immediately sidled up to them with a smile.

“Welcome,” he greeted. “Oh, I remember you, you were with the taller, darker haired one the first time he came around,” he said looking down at Pidge. She nodded her head, impressed at his memory. It had been several months since they had last been here. Looking around the shop though, it didn’t look like he got very many customers. The rest of the paladins spread out, covering the store. Traitors. She looked back at the shopkeeper who hadn’t stopped smiling at her. Strangely, she didn’t find it creepy in any way, more friendly than anything else.

“How did you like his gift? He told me that he was shopping for his sister,” Pidge froze even as the shopkeeper looked down at her curiously with a finger to his chin.

“Although you don’t look very much like him, I thought that humans bared traits of their families,” he mused out loud.

“Oh, we, we’re not blood-related,” Pidge managed to spit out.

“Fascinating, you must have a strong bond then,” the shopkeeper said before he walked back behind his counter. Pidge looked down at her feet silently. That punch in the gut was feeling more like a stab now. She started wandering around the store, ignoring the looks the rest of the team were shooting at her. She stopped at a low hanging shelf and started flipping through the packs of stickers that were sitting in a box. Maybe she would be able to find some shark stickers or something. Her eyes widened when her fingers landed on a thicker package and her gaze wandered to the off yellow plastic. She ripped it out of the box with a triumphant yell.

“This is perfect!” She cheered. Looking back over to the box, she saw another package right behind it and pulled it out as well.

“What’s perfect?” Keith asked as they walked over to her. She held the items in front of her with a huge smile on her face. Keith quirked his brow and looked back at her unimpressed.

“Glow in the dark stars?”

“Yes!” She cheered. She stopped when she saw them looking at her with complete confusion.

“It’s just something that he told me a while ago,” she started. “He told me that he always had stars on his bedroom ceiling no matter where he was, even at the Garrison, he told me that he had one of those alarm clocks that projected stars on the ceiling,”

“Oh, yeah, I remember that,” Hunk said with a fond smile. He remembered waking up through the night and seeing the stars on the ceiling. He asked Lance about it but all he got in return was a frantic apology and a promise that it wouldn’t happen again. It took a lot of persuading for Lance to believe that it wasn’t bothering him.

“Yeah, it was something he did with his family and his big sister bought him the clock too before he left home,” she said looking down at the stars in her hands. She felt much lighter just thinking about it.

She walked beside Hunk as he looked around the store. She pointed out anything that looked slightly interesting. They got to the back of the shop and were about to turn back when Hunk’s eyes caught on something on the bottom shelf. It looked to be a chest but the top of it was made of glass. Curiously he got to his knees and slid it off of the shelf. He gasped and his head lowered closer to the glass in shock.

“What? Whats wrong?” Pidge asked worried, crouching beside him. His head whipped up with a smile.

“Spices!” Is all he said before he looked back at the crate examining it closer.

“Garlic, cumin, caper, coconut, bay laurel, oregano, coriander, pepper,” he listed off excited. “There’s even coffee beans, and that’s just what I can identify from looking, do you know what this means Pidge?” His head turned to look at her.

“Uh…no?” She admitted. Hunk let out a laugh.

“I can make Lance Cuban food, stuff he always talked about missing at the Garrison,” he said pushing himself back up to his feet. He picked the chest up in his arms and walked back towards the front.

“What do you have there?” Shiro asked looking at the chest.

“Spices, I’m going to make Lance food, hopefully just like his mother makes,”

“Oh, that’s a great idea, I wish I could do something like that,” Shiro said, glancing around the shop. He still hasn’t been able to find something for Lance. There were plenty of things that he thought that he might like but it wasn’t right for him to throw something at him without any meaning behind it. He looked over at Keith and saw him looking around with the same hopeless expression as his own. He decided to stand beside Hunk as his purchase went through and try to think of a different idea.

“Excuse me,”

“Huh?” He looked up to see the shopkeeper looking at him with a small smile.

“If you would like, I have quite a collection out back if you would like to look back there,” he offered, gesturing at the curtain behind his back.

“Really?” Shiro asked. The shopkeeper nodded and waved them behind the counter and held the curtain open for them as they passed.

“I’m quite fond of this collection so I don’t put it in the shop, I save it for people that can appreciate a planet like Terra,” he said as they gazed in awe at the long lines of selves filled with memorabilia from Earth.

“How many people have been in here?” Pidge asked curiously as Keith and Shiro split off down the aisles.

“Just you four, not many people come in the store anyway,”

“What? But you have so many awesome things!” Hunk argued.

“That may be true, but not for beings of other planets. They don’t see these things as something of value even though they are important to the people who made them,”

Hunk opened his mouth to say something else but was interrupted by a shriek from Shiro. They raced over to him and saw him sitting down holding a frame to his chest and fanning his eyes with the other.

“Oh my god, oh my god,” he muttered quietly.

“What are you doing?” Hunk deadpanned looking down at their leader. Shiro breathed out and silently handed the frame over to Hunk who let out a startled whoa. Pidge peered at the frame in amazement.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen her signature,” Pidge said as she looked at the black and white picture of Katherine Johnson, a neat signature of her name in the bottom corner.

“I haven’t either,” Shiro said giddily, taking the picture from Hunk’s hands again.

“Shiro, you’re supposed to be looking for a gift for Lance, not fanboying,” Keith groaned.

“This is perfect for Lance though, she’s his hero,” he argued.

“What do you mean?” Hunk asked with a quirked brow.

“Well, when we were at the Garrison I was an assistant to one of the profs and I had to help grade some of the assignments about people that inspired them and I read Lance’s,” he said simply.

“You do realize that your Lance’s hero right?” Hunk said crossing his arms.

“What?” Shiro asked. Hunk nodded his head and Shiro looked back at the picture.

“I know that she is one of his heroes then, we even talked about it and he told me that she was the reason that he wanted to go into space, and why he kept going even when things got hard,”

“Don’t steal it from him,” Keith warned poking him in the chest with his finger.

“I won’t!” Shiro pouted, hugging the frame to his chest and turning away. It didn’t take long for him to hand money over to the shopkeeper for it.

Meanwhile, Keith frantically moved through the selves. Everyone had found something for Lance, things with meaning too. He didn’t know nearly as much as he thought he did about him, not as much as the others anyway. He hoped that there would be something at the end of the last isle but as he reached the back wall, his shoulders slumped. He turned and started making his way back to the front, his boots scuffing along the floor as he went.

He really wanted to get Lance something special. Something that he would treasure and Earth was something that he treasured. He sniffed as frustrated tears welled up in his eyes and quickly reached up to wipe them away as he walked up to his friends.

“What did you find?” Shiro asked as he turned away from the shopkeeper.

“Nothing,” Keith said quietly. His lip trembled slightly and he looked down at the ground.

“Maybe you can get him something for the Gameflux then,” Pidge suggested holding on to his jacket. He silently nodded and wiped at his eyes again.

“There are plenty more choices back here,” the shopkeeper said helpfully before leading the group to the far wall. Shiro, Hunk, and Pidge looked through the cases as Keith stepped back taking a moment to collect himself again. As he did his eyes wandered away and stopped on a small collection of pictures. He walked over and looked at the Polaroid pictures. It was pictures of various landscapes and landmarks from all over Earth.

“I’m quite fond of the way Earth looks,” Keith looked over his shoulder to see the shopkeeper approaching him.

“Yeah, it’s pretty great,” Keith agreed.

“The inhabitants aren’t so bad either,”

“We aren’t the best people to judge that on, there are some pretty bad people on Earth,”

“That is true, but you aren’t the only earthlings that I’ve encountered,”

“What? You’ve met other humans?”

“Yes, a rather nice family many years ago, they allowed me to take pictures of them and the place they lived,” he said as he crouched and pulled an album out of a dusty box. He laid it on the desk and opened it carefully. It was filled with old black and white polaroid pictures of landscapes and people, as they neared the end the pictures started to become coloured although they were noticeably still old.

“They allowed me to take their album as a token of friendship,” he said fondly.

“Wow, that’s incredible,” Keith said as he flipped through the pages, not really taking in a lot of the pictures.

“Yes, they weren’t at all phased by my appearance either, there are truly some good souls on Earth,” he stated with a smile.

“Where were these taken?” he asked curiously.

“Santiago, I believe is what they called it,”

Keith froze and looked over at him with wide eyes.

“Santiago de Cuba?” He asked. Slightly stunned the shopkeeper nodded his head.

“How much for this?” Keith asked, closing the album and hugging it to his chest.

“I’m sorry, it’s not for sale,” he said.

“Please! I’ll pay you anything!”

“Keith? What’s wrong?” Shiro asked as they walked over to the two of them.

“Please! Lance is from Santiago and he misses it so much, he would love this!” Keith pleaded.

“Keith, he said it wasn’t for sale,” Hunk tried. Keith ignored them and looked up at the shopkeeper.

“Lance is the tall one that came in earlier correct?” He asked. Keith nodded.

“Alright, it’s yours,” he said.

“Thank you so much, thank you, how much?” Keith asked digging into his pockets, still clutching the album in his other arm.

“Free,” he said. Keith’s head jolted up in shock.

“I haven’t come across a kinder being since I last visited Earth, just tell him that I say hello,”

* * *

Lance groaned as he blinked open his eyes and sat up. He stared down at the floor for a few moments before he stood up and made his way to the bathroom. His hair was a mess and his eyes were puffy from crying. He only sighed and left his room, preparing himself to face the rest of his team. He started trying to flatten his hair as he started getting closer to the kitchen and paused when he smelled something. Something very familiar. His eyes widened and he broke into a sprint, barely catching himself before he could slip to the floor.

“Lance!” Hunk’s voice cheerfully called out. His eyes widened at the steaming mug that was sitting on the counter.

“Is that?” He asked, his eyes focused on the cup.

“Yup!”

“Oh my god,” he said. He immediately went forward and took the cup in his hands and inhaled the aroma. He took a small sip and looked over at Hunk in awe.

“Just how you like it, huh?”

“You remembered,” he said in quiet amazement.

“Of course I did, its a bit late for coffee now though, now go sit down, I’ll have the food finished in a bit,” he said waving his hands at Lance in a shooing motion. Lance laughed but obeyed and cradled his cup to his chest as he left for the dining hall. Hunk sighed in relief that the smell of coffee overtook the smell of the food on the stove.

As Lance went through the door, the conversation in the room went silent for a moment. They were huddled around one end of the table, closer than they usually were during meals.

“Good morning Lance,” Shiro greeted with a small wave. Lance nodded in return and slipped into the seat beside Keith, quietly sipping on his café con leche.

“Um, Lance? I know that this probably won’t make up for what happened last night but we got you a couple of things,” Shiro said after a few minutes of awkward silence. Lance’s head shot up. Quite simply, he was shocked. Pidge got up from her chair and stood beside Lance, sheepishly holding out a package to him.

“I know it won’t be the same but maybe we can do it together?” She suggested as he started ripping off the paper. A wide smile stretched across his face when he saw the stars.

“You remembered me talking about this?” He asked with a laugh. Pidge blushed and huffed.

“Of course I did, I have stars on my ceiling too, Matt helped me with mine,” she admitted.

“Aww Pidge, we’re closer than I thought! We’re star buddies,” Lance cooed squeezing her in a hug. These would at least make the Castle seem a little bit like home.

“I know it’s not much,” she sighed sinking into the hug. Lance shook his head in disagreement.

“This is perfect Pidge, all I could have ever asked for,” he said. He sat back and gave her a final smile before she walked back to her seat. He startled slightly when another was slid in front of him and he looked up to see Shiro twiddling his thumbs and looking down at the table.

“It’s nothing compared to what you did for me but I hope you at least like it, I’m really sorry for what happened yesterday, it won’t ever happen again,” Shiro promised. Lance quirked his brow, really the café con leche and the stars were enough, he felt better about the whole thing already. He picked up the package though and tore through it.

“Holy shit,” he breathed out looking at the picture. His eyes darted up to Shiro who giddily bouncing in his chair.

“I know right,”

“Oh my God, you remembered?”

“How could I not remember!? I was basically rolling on the floor because of how excited I was to talk about her,” Shiro chuckled with a blush. Lance laughed at the memory.

“This is amazing Shiro, thank you so much,” he said earnestly.

“Now look on the back,” he said with a smile. With a shrug, Lance did so.

“What the fuck,” he mumbled. Stuck on the back of the frame was a sticky note. Scrawled on the top was ‘I’ll always be your hero,” with Shiro’s signature underneath it, followed by a really shitty drawn person doing finger-guns. His face turned red and he looked up at Shiro. He burst out laughing when he saw Shiro in the same position as the drawing and started waving his fingers at him.

“What did I miss?” Hunk asked as he walked into the room carrying a covered tray.

“Nothing much, a little bonding, a little fanboying,” Keith said with a grin as Hunk sat down the tray. He looked over to Lance with a bit of a hesitant smile.

“Now it might not look like it, but it does taste and smell like it,” Lance looked at him in confusion but as soon as the cover was off and the aroma wafted through the room, he understood. Immediately his hands came up to his mouth and tears welled up in his eyes. He hunched over as he was overcome with emotion. It smelled just like his mamá’s ropa vieja, although the colour was a bit off.

“Super close right? The only thing we didn’t have was the meat but Coran helped me find something that tasted similar,” Lance sniffed and nodded before picking up his fork and taking a bite of it. Immediately after he started chewing, he dropped it again and curled up in his chair. It was so close to what he ate at home that he felt like he was back on Earth.

“Is it bad?” Hunk asked sadly.

“No, it’s good, it’s so good Hunk,” Lance denied shaking his head. Through his small sobs, he continued to take bites. He couldn’t believe that Hunk remembered how to make this dish, let alone figure out how to make it with alien ingredients. It didn’t take long at all for his plate to be cleared.

“Thank you so much,” he cried jumping up to wrap his arms around Hunk. He rested his chest against Hunk’s chest and stayed there, just breathing and trying to calm down slightly.

“It’s the least that I could do,” Hunk responded softly. Lance smiled and stayed in Hunk’s arms just basking in the warmth that was spreading through him. He released him with a smile and sat back down. When he looked at the other paladins he noticed that their eyes were focused on Keith who was looking down at the table with a troubled expression.

“Keith? You alright?” He asked. Keith glanced over at him before pulling a wrapped gift from where it was sitting behind his back and holding it out to him.

“I’m really sorry Lance,” was all he said. Lance gave him a smile and sat it down on the table. At this point, Keith could have given him a wooden board and he would be happy. He was a bit confused when he ripped over the paper and saw the cover of a book staring up at him. He opened it and immediately was brought back home. He looked over to Keith who was once again staring at the table.

“Is this Santiago?” He asked quietly. Keith nodded slightly and was grabbed in a tight hug.

“Thank you so much, Keith!” He cried with a smile. Keith choked as Lance squeezed him. As quickly as the hug came, he was released and Lance was absorbed in the pictures. They looked over at him with wide smiles and started digging into their slightly cold food.

“Oh my god. OH MY GOD!” They flinched when Lance’s voice rang out through the room and their heads snapped towards him. He was staring down at the album, his hand on his forehead and tears rolling down his cheeks.

“Lance? What’s wrong? Are you okay?” Keith asked frantically coming over to him.

“Keith, you may have just given me the greatest gift of all time and you didn’t even realize it,” Lance muttered, still staring down at the album. He burst into motion, quickly flipping through the pages. With every turn, more and more tears appeared on his face.

“What? What do you mean?” He asked. Lance stopped on the page he flipped to and his hands clapped over his mouth. He breathed in shakily and smiled up at Keith before angling the album towards him and pointing at a little boy in one of the pictures.

“Yeah?” He said raising an eyebrow.

“Keith, that’s my papá,”

“What!?” Keith’s eyes widened as they flicked between Lance and the pictures.

“I don’t know where or how you got this book but I have never felt so blessed in my life, I’ve only ever seen one picture of my papá as a kid but now I have so many,” he flicked a few pages back and pointed at a Polaroid that had ‘Clyde’ written under it.

“That’s my Uncle Clyde. He died in an accident when my papá was sixteen. I’ve never seen what he looked like, until now,” he wiped his eyes and flicked a few more pages. He stopped at a spread of landscape photos of a small house surrounded by pens of animals.

“My papá would tell me stories of this farm but I never got to see it before it was torn down,” he stopped and put his head in his hands again.

“Keith you have no idea how much this means to me, there is so much about my family that I have no idea about and you just cleared up so many things for me, thank you so much,” he sobbed once again wrapping his arms around Keith.

“I’m just glad it was enough,” he admitted. As he held Lance’s trembling form in his arms, he could feel Shiro and Hunk’s arms wrapping around them. Even as Lance’s tears started soaking through his shirt, Keith couldn’t feel more grateful for where he was. He was sure that they would take Lance’s feelings more seriously from that point on.

As for Lance, he couldn’t have asked for anything more. He knew that his friends could be forgetful and a bit harsh with feelings sometimes but they were humans, children even and they can make mistakes. The important thing was that they wanted to fix it and he could live with that. Really though, he wouldn’t want to be there with anybody else.

**Author's Note:**

> Come visit me at my Tumblr too!: https://blueplanettrash.tumblr.com/


End file.
